The band's Roger Taylor said the truth was very different. "We felt Sacha probably wasn't right in the end. We didn't want it to be a joke," he told the NME. "We want people to be moved."

Screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) was attached to the biopic but exited after Baron Cohen quit the role. He told the BBC earlier this month that the film was "probably not going to happen" following the casting shake-up, but the project is understood to be going ahead nonetheless.

Taylor said he was frustrated with the length of the gestation process. "I thought the music business was slow, but this has been like swimming in treacle," he said.

The musician's comments would appear to ignore Baron Cohen's recent emergence as a serious actor in the musical Les Misérables. The search for someone to play Mercury nevertheless continues, with Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe having this week denied reports he might be preparing to step into the former Ali G star's shoes.